The Oddest Vehicle Rex Cravat Ever Owned
Rex Cravat at the wheel of the Stashmobile near Catalina, Arizona, circa 1978. Photo by Jerry Ferrin.
Rex had a lot of eccentric friends over the years, one of whom was an itinerant sign-painter who called himself "The Reverend Brother Stash" and traveled throughout the southwest while living and working out of his home-made, and self-decorated camper built on the body of a Studebaker car, a 1962 model, I think it was.
I took this photo of "Stash" at Plaza Antiqua in Tucson, Arizona, on December 7th, 1975, when I was on leave from the Navy. I had known Rex for a few years before I learned that he & Stash were friends, having met when both were working in either Bisbee or Tombstone, Arizona, in earlier years.
When Stash became terminally ill in Tucson in the late 1970's or early 1980's, he made Rex sole beneficiary and executor of his will, which is how Rex came to own the Stashmobile.
Stash didn't have a lot, except a really nice set of brushes and supplies of paint, which were packed into the Stashmobile living quarters with his paintings, food & personal effects.
Note the slogan above Rex's head: Illegimui non Corbubundum , or something to that effect, which I was told was latin for "Don't let the bastards grind you down".
The Stashmobile was top-heavy even without all Stash's stuff in it, I'm here to testify. The shock absorbers were also worn out, so it swayed alarmingly when driven, I made it through to testify.
The "camper" also stunk so bad that it would have made a maggot gag.
So, after Rex had distributed the things Stash had to other friends of Stash's who wanted momentos, he decided to tear off the "camper" and just have a sort of rustic pickup truck. Before he did, we took a drive out to Catalina, Arizona, from Tucson, to shoot photos of the Stashmobile.
At left: Rex Cravat at the wheel of the Stashmobile.
About six months after he took the camper off the Stashmobile, Rex sold it for a dollar to a friend who needed a way to get around.
I recently found the following photo entitled "The Scattering of Stash's Ashes". Rex invited me to attend and so I took my camera along to document the scattering of Stash's ashes by a group of his friends from the top of a cliff on the western side of Gate's Pass on the west side of Tucson, Arizona.
I was at the bottom of the cliff and a distance away, with a very strong wind at my back. This photo was taken an instant after Rex tossed a hand-made ceramic greenware (unfired) pot made by Stewart Rosen, who was in the group on the cliff, when the pot with Stash's ashes appears frozen above the skyline, and everyone in the group is reacting to the impending release of his mortal remains.
When the (biodegradable) pot hit the ground and shattered, the wind from the west caught the ashes and carried them up the cliff face and then smack dab into the faces of all of Stash's friends.
Rex and I laughed about this many times over the years, and his observation to me just after it happened, that everyone else in the group was covering their faces when they were in the passage of the ashes except for "Larry the Leatherworker", who Rex told me just closed his eyes and inhaled.
The Scattering of Stash's Ashes
From left: Larry the Leatherworker, Larry's girlfriend, Gail Cravat, Rex Cravat, Bill Ridenhour, Stewart Rosen and Darrell Ferrin on a peak at Gate's Pass west of Tucson, Arizona, a split second after Rex tossed a pot containing Stash's ashes, circa 1979. Photo by
Jerry Ferrin.